Hammer thrower Rogers, runner DeBues-Stafford victorious for Canada at Paavo Nurmi Games

Canadians grabbed a share of the track and field spotlight Tuesday, with hammer thrower Camryn Rogers and middle-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford winning their competitions at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland.

Rogers, the reigning world and Olympic champion, wasn’t at her best but was victorious with a throw of 74.59 metres on the fifth of her six attempts. She also fouled three times.

Hometown favourite Silja Kosonen was second (73.21) at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet.

Rogers, 26, has a best throw of 78.14 this season and 78.62 personal best, a Canadian record.

The Richmond, B.C., native has won two of her other three events this season and was second at the Trond Mohn Games on June 3 in Norway.

Rogers won an Olympic gold medal last Aug. 6 in Paris and captured her first world championship title in 2023. The only Canadian woman to medal at the event in hammer throw also earned 2022 silver.

WATCH | Rogers captures her 3rd of 4 hammer throw wins this season Tuesday in Finland:

B.C.’s Camryn Rogers places 1st in women’s hammer throw competition in Turku

The Richmond, B.C. native scored 75.59-metres on her 5th throw to clinch the women’s hammer throw competition at the World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Turku, Finland.

DeBues-Stafford, 29, has regained her winning form early in the outdoor campaign following three injury-marred seasons.

The Toronto native captured the women’s 1,500 metres in Finland for her second straight win in the distance to start the season.

DeBues-Stafford reached the finish line in four minutes two seconds, her fastest race in over three years since going 3:58.62 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet on May 28, 2022.

“I think there is more time [to be shaved] in the future,” DeBues-Stafford said after the race, in a text message to CBC Sports. “It was quite windy when we started [with] gusts of 40 kilometres per hour [but] the stadium blocked the worst of it.”

DeBues-Stafford, who had a 2024 season best of 4:15.09, took nearly two seconds off her 4:03.81 effort from three weeks ago in Belgium.

WATCH | Full replay coverage of Paavo Nurmi Games from Turku:

World Athletics Continental Tour Turku

Watch all the action from the 2025 World Athletics Continental Tour stop in Turku, Finland.

Hampered by injuries

A two-time Olympian, DeBues ran 3:56.12 in the 2019 world final, one of her seven national indoor and outdoor records.

She entered this season having spent much of the past three years dealing with stress fractures and troubles with her sacroiliac (SI) joint, which link the pelvis and lower spine.

DeBues-Stafford, who was fifth in the 2021 Olympic final in Tokyo, will run the 1,500 on Sunday at the Troyes International Athletics Meeting in Aube, France. She is also scheduled to race the 1,500 in the country on July 4 at the Stanislas Nancy competition in Tomblaine.

In the women’s 100 on Tuesday, Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que., placed fourth in 11.16 seconds, 5-100ths of a second faster than her heat performance.

New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs, who topped all runners in the heats with an 11.09 clocking, went 11.07 to capture the final over Hungary’s Boglárka Takács (11.11).

Leduc, 26, ran a Canadian record 10.95 to win her Olympic heat last summer before helping Canada’s women’s 100m relay team to gold last month at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China.

WATCH | Leduc 4th in women’s 100m, 9-100ths of a second behind winner Hobbs:

New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs wins women’s 100m race in Turku

The 27-year-old Olympian clocked in at a time of 11.07 seconds to win the sprint during the World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Turku, Finland. Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que. placed 4th with a time of 11.16 seconds.

In the men’s 100 final, Jerome Blake of Kelowna delivered a 10.18 SB for fifth in his fourth race of the season, one spot in front of fellow Canadian Andre De Grasse (10.23).

Blake, 29, won the first of two heats in 10.19 over South Africa’s Benji Richardson, who was second in the final in 10.09, 1-100th behind Romell Glave of Great Britain.

Blake was a member of the Canadian men’s 100m relay squad, along with De Grasse, that won 2024 Olympic gold.

WATCH | Blake runs season-best 10.18 seconds in men’s 100m at Paavo Nurmi Games:

B.C.’s Jerome Blake narrowly falls to Great Britain’s Romell Glave in men’s 100m final in Turku

The 29-year-old Olympian finished 0.01 seconds behind Great Britain’s Romell Glave for a score of 10.09 seconds to be the runner-up in the sprint at the World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Turku, Finland.

Other Canadian results:

• Quebec’s Jean-Simon Desgagnes was fifth in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase on Tuesday. Racing for the third time in nine days, his eight-minute 14.40-second showing is a season best and a little over one second shy of his 8:13.11 SB last year. Germany’s Frederik Ruppert won in 8:10.39. Desgagnes, a native of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges competed at his first Olympics in 2024, finishing 13th in the steeplechase final.
   
• Thomas Fafard of Repentigny, Que., was seventh of 15 finishers in the men’s 5,000m, stopping the clock in 13 minutes 18.74 seconds for a season best. Belgium’s John Heymans was victorious in 13:03.87, also a SB. This was Fafard’s second attempt at the 13:01 automatic qualifying standard for the world championships. The 2024 Olympian 13:55.85 on May 24 in Los Angeles.

• Quebec City’s Charles-Philibert-Thiboutot, the other member of Canadian track’s “Three Musketeers” with Desgagnes and Fafard, finished 12th of 13 finishers in the men’s 1,500 in 3:38.17. Ermiyas Girma of Ethiopia prevailed in a 3.33.49 PB. Philibert-Thiboutot is still seeking the 3:33 world standard (his PB is 3:32.94) but is top Canadian in the world rankings quota at 43 among the 56 to be selected.

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